Archive for February 2010

Nordis Direct participated as an exhibitor at the recent American Resort Development Association (ARDA) 2010 Convention & Exposition, at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, NV, March 14 – 18. Nordis Direct presented their Expresso technology, utilized by many top companies throughout the Vacation Ownership industry as their primary solution for effectively managing prospect, owner and financial mail and email communications.

ARDA Attendees visiting Nordis Direct in exhibit #310, learned about the benefits of Expresso – a web-enabled solution that provides its users with a user-friendly platform for efficiently managing their one-to-one communications. The Expresso platform enables resort developers to significantly improve how they manage their prospect, owner and financial communications across multiple channels (mail, email). This platform gives non-technical personnel the ability to develop personalized critical document content utilizing a secure web-based portal, while managing business rules and custom data tables, viewing on-line proofs of the final document; and deliver the communications via mail and email directly from their desktop. Expresso supports all types of written and electronic communications, including sales & marketing, owner and referral, financial, HOA, as well as transpromotional and direct mail initiatives.

Direct marketing solutions provider, Nordis Direct, has announced the promotion of Richard O’Rourke to the position of Vice President, Business Development.

Rich joined Nordis Direct in February 1999 as a sales executive to build the critical document services client base. The following year, he was promoted to Director of Document Management; leading the charge to grow this division of Nordis Direct’s business. In this position, Rich has been responsible for managing the implementation of personalized, critical communications programs for new and existing clients; with a focus on new business development, strategic direction and project management. Through Rich’s efforts, the company has secured key, long-term clients within the Vacation Ownership, Medical Billing, and Financial sectors. Prior to joining Nordis Direct, Rich was employed by Postal Center International (PCI) where he managed production operations, and also held positions in data processing, customer service and sales.

In his new role as Vice President, Business Development for Nordis Direct, Rich will be responsible for overseeing the business development team; establishing key business partnerships within our core industries; and will be instrumental in the development and implementation of marketing and sales strategies.

Ronnie Selinger, President and CEO of Nordis Direct stated, “Rich O’Rourke has been a key member of our sales and marketing team for over ten years now; performing consistently as a top producer for the company. Among his many talents as a successful business professional, Rich is a ‘people’ person – relationship building is truly his forte. We are very fortunate to have Rich leading our business development efforts.”

Even after years in the timeshare, hospitality, and vacation ownership industries, I am constantly amazed by the complexity of the industry. Consider this — most timeshare companies not only have all the complexities of their rental hospitality brethren, but they are also tour operators, property management companies, condo association management, and mortgage originators and servicers. To make things even more complex, even in the areas where they overlap other industries, the rules and regulations for timeshare are in many cases more complex than the equivalent in a business process in another industry. For example, as complex as multi-channel reservations may be for a non-timeshare hotel property, in the case of timeshare they are made even more complex by the restrictions around what can and cannot be done with a property owner’s entitlement (points usage or fixed week purchase). Even within those rules, the amount of time between the booking date and the actual stay date may alter the rules significantly.

Timeshare and vacation ownership companies, therefore, are a prime candidate for Smarter Systems, as outlined in James Taylor’s excellent book Smart (Enough) Systems. In that book, Taylor and Raden advocate the use of intelligent, rules-based systems for automating the day-to-day decisions that result in the underutilization of staff when done manually.

At Nordis Direct we have taken the question “What do Smarter Systems look like from a marketing perspective?” and encapsulated those insights in our Expresso™ product. By making the systems more intelligent, we have greatly reduced the cycle time in our customers’ marketing programs from conception to execution, and have enabled a high degree of data-driven personalization within the marketing programs themselves. This can manifest as a different message printing in a marketing zone on a statement based on a customer’s individual profile, or as a different insert based on past customer history, or as an entirely different offer mailing to different customer segments.

We have also embraced our customers’ needs to execute these marketing plans as cost-effectively as possible. While the effectiveness of e-mail advertising versus print mailing is still a hotly debated theme (which we’ll address in a future blog posting on this site), Expresso allows for intelligent fail-over of e-mail campaigns, so an equivalent print piece can be sent out automatically if the e-mail offer is not viewed within a particular time frame. Maintaining reach and penetration while reducing cost? That sounds like Smarter Systems!

It’s no wonder, therefore, that a significant portion of our clients come from the vacation ownership and timeshare industries. We understand their unique needs and are able to provide flexibility and customization that even their internal marketing processes have difficulty replicating. Watch this space for more information on how Nordis Direct services the unique needs of the vacation ownership industry in future installments, or head on over to Nordis Direct to learn more now. Until next time, Happy Marketing!

A recent article on SmartDataCollective.com by Sundeep Kapur highlights the best practices needed to convert prospects into repeat buyers by microtargeting individuals. The best practices he enumerates are (paraphrased):

Provide a trigger – Have a “tangible asset” that can be purchased, even if it’s a small purchase.

Follow up with more – Capture preferences and feedback and craft follow-up offerings within 30 to 45 days.

Keep score – Follow up on results and use that information to drive further tests and offers.

While Mr. Kapur’s points are indisputable, many marketers are still left with a shortage of tools with which to execute against these best practices.

Nordis Direct’s Expresso™ product is specifically designed to provide a low-cost, easy-to-use platform that bakes these best practices directly into its everyday workflow. Expresso™ addresses these best practices directly:

Making a closer connection by allowing the user to use sophisticated business rules and content assembly to dynamically create an offer based on highly granular demographic, activity, or preference data elements within the prospect record.

Creating a memory by allowing the user to dynamically insert glossy collateral pieces into the mailing and render full-color print materials customized to each campaign and prospect segment or individual.

Providing purchase triggers in the form of click-through e-mails, personalized URL landing sites, or other customized calls to action in the offer itself.

Following up by automatically sending related packages at set intervals, or based on response, or by having e-mail campaigns automatically follow up with print items if the e-mails are not opened.

Keeping score by maintaining a database of customer activity that can be merged with outcome tracking into a single holistic customer view for advanced analytics and segmentation activities.

If your multi-channel, micro-targeted marketing efforts are not enabling you to effectively convert prospects to repeat buyers, you owe it to yourself to visit www.nordisdirect.com to learn how Expresso™ can revolutionize your communications for prospects and clients.

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